The Supreme Court of Rhode Island was asked to rule on whether the state legislature had authority to change the terms under which retired faculty were reemployed by public institutions in the state. In Retired Adjunct Professors of the State of Rhode Island v. Almond, 690 A.2d 1342, professors who had retired from state institutions argued that, at the time they retired, state law allowed them to be employed by the state for the equivalent of seventy-five days without losing their pension benefits. In 1994, the Rhode Island legislature changed the law to provide that pension benefits would be suspended for the period of time that the retired professors were paid by the state.
The law was later amended to permit them to earn up to $10,000 per year without suspending their pension benefits. The retired professors claimed that the action by the legislature violated the contract clauses of both the state and federal constitutions. A state trial court judge agreed and permanently enjoined the application of the new law to these plaintiffs.
The state supreme court reversed, ruling that there had been no contract between the state and the retired professors to reemploy them.